Hello,

This post will be short, as I (and the rest of the staff at the restaurant) am exhausted. Restaurant week is over, well, kind of. We are joining the large group of restaurants extending the deal another week, though it seems it will be much less busy than the first. Restaurant week is such a bittersweet thing, great to have the business in what would be one of our worst months out of the year is great, though difficult to pull off. Averaging over 200 covers a night (we did three hundred some Friday), each eating four courses, that's upwards of a thousand plates a night, maxing out at about 1300.

With that kind of volume comes a lot of difficulty, trying to maintain ordering pars to cover what you need, while not keeping too much of any product on one hand, finding not only motivation for yourself but also to inspire your staff after cooking hundreds of the same dishes over and over and over, maintaining sanity while spending your time with the same people (none of whom have any days off, and usually end up spending time together after work) in the same building night after night, trying to maintain the standards of the regular menu for the few who do choose to order off of it, creating a menu that is cost effective, able to be executed in high volumes and above all still delicious. It's not easily done, to say the least, and the week offers a unique challenge as a chef, but those challenges (and meeting them) are what make a chef. I suppose the point is that I'm exhausted, as most restaurant employees in Denver are, but it's good to be busy. Really Good to be busy. I'm glad I've survived (though I managed a pretty good burn on my left forearm) this years Restaurant Week (knock on wood for part two), and look forward to next years being even better.

Here's to the future.

L